Embedded Xinu Operating System on Raspberry Pi

Approach: Design and implementation of basic operating
system functionality for an embedded PC the size of a credit card

Summary: The Embedded Xinu infrastructure already implemented
in Marquette's Systems Lab is well-situated to begin an in-depth
exploration of hardware/software interaction on the new Raspberry Pi
platform. The expected
benefits of expanding the system to support this new platform are
many: a small, agile system for prototyping new construction and
analysis tools for embedded system designers; a model reference platform for
students and educators to explore design techniques on the cutting
edge of our field; a time-tested operating system girded for new
challenges in a rapidly evolving world, with genuine promise for
commercial application. Mentor Brylow has previously led undergraduate
research teams in porting embedded kernels to the MIPS and PowerPC
architectures, and that software is now in use for teaching and
research at several other institutions.

Students involved with this project will explore the challenges
inherent in porting the Embedded Xinu operating system to a open platform ARM-based system.
Students will learn about cross-platform embedded software
development, embedded kernel bootstrapping, concurrency control in an
embedded environment, and device driver construction. The software
and matching course modules they produce will be available for other
universities interested in teaching hands-on systems development at
the lowest levels of computing; by supporting concurrency in a kernel
several orders of magnitude smaller than typical embedded Linux
installations, they will be providing a model system for education and
research.